Cebu City, the Philippines, 28 June 2018. Representatives of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) – SDB North (FIN), SDB South (FIS), and FMA Philippine province (FIL) converged as One SYM Coordinating Team (OSCT) during their first joint meeting to review the SDB primer and the FMA handbook for the SYM and, in turn, be able to come up with a document as a unified SYM – Philippines.
The historic meeting took place last June 27-28, 2018 at the Don Bosco Provincial House – Talamban, Cebu City as part of the three Salesian provinces’ effort to heed the challenge of the times and of the recently concluded 30th anniversary of SYM in the Philippines National Assembly Days last April 2018, and that is for every province to identify oneself and execute activities as Salesian Youth Movement – Philippines. The SYM’s motto is “YOUTH SERVING YOUTH” and is accompanied with a theme song with the same title.
The first day of the meeting, June 27, 2018, started off with the celebration of the Holy Mass. Then, the group of 17 people from SDB FIN, SDB FIS, and FMA FIL gathered at the hall for the meeting proper.
To contextualize the meeting, the recapitulation videos for the National Assembly Days 2018 were presented to the assembly by the SDB FIN representatives thus evoking the resolutions that were made last April.
As one of the primary and initial points discussed, the assembly decided whether to come up with an SYM Primer or an SYM Handbook. In unanimity,the assembly agreed that coming up with a common SYM Primer should be the first step before constructing other documents such as the common SYM Handbook. In this regard, the assembly grouped according to their province (SDB FIN, SDB FIS, and FMA FIL) to brainstorm onthe contents that should be included for the prospected SYM Primer.
In the afternoon, the three provinces reported their suggestions for the SYM Primer’s content. The plenary made use of the contents of the SDB FIS’s report as the basis to proceed with the modifications for the Primer.
Deliberately, the assembly discussed each proposed heading for the SYM Primer. The document was outlined considering the significance of every detail as well as the commonality between the situations of the three provinces.
In summary, the Primer would be divided into two parts, The Salesian Youth Movement (Nature) and Dynamics of the Movement, with each part having further subheadings. To accomplish the actual contents of the document, the assembly divided among themselves specific subheadings as assignments which are expected to be reported during their next joint meeting.
The long day of discussions ended with a recreation time at Cebu I.T. Park.
On June 28, 2018, the assembly continued their agenda for the meeting. After the Holy Mass, the participants shared among one another what transpired during the previous day. Afterwards, they discussed the structure of each province’s SYM in order for them to understand the convergence point of every province in terms of the dynamics in the movement.
Nearing the end of the meeting, the assembly, which was also dubbed as One SYM Coordinating Team (OSCT), discussed the other matters that included the World Youth Day in January 2019, National Youth Day in April 2019, and the National Conference of Youth Ministers in September 2018.
The OSCT agreed that they will meet again for their second joint meeting on September 9, 2018 to accomplish their tasks and continue their discussions towards becoming a unified and strategic SYM – Philippines.
by Diego Leandro L. Contreras (FIL)
